Free Republic

Four years after the pandemic-era housing boom, the real-estate market continues to face instability. With ongoing affordability challenges exacerbated by high interest rates and inflated home values, housing is a major concern for Americans across the political spectrum. In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance shared his perspective on the root causes of the nation's high home prices and rents. "When I talk to Americans, one of the biggest concerns I hear is, 'Why are housing costs so high?' I'll give you two reasons: First, there are 20 million illegal aliens who shouldn't be...

Guam faces a substantial threat from China's massive missile arsenal, and US Army officials say more air defense capabilities are desperately needed.Efforts to defend this strategic US territory in the Pacific from a barrage in the event of war are underway, but Army leaders say one of the biggest challenges is fielding integrated systems with deeper magazines to stop air and missile attacks.At a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel on the defense of Guam late last month, Army Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, the program executive officer for the US Army's Missiles and Space program, said that he'd called...

CAIRO -- Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said Wednesday it has ordered Egyptian airlines to avoid Iranian airspace for three hours the following day after a notice from Tehran to do so because of military exercises.The warning comes amid soaring tensions in the region following last week’s assassination of Hamas’ leader in Tehran. The Egyptian ministry said the warning came in a notice sent by Iran to all commercial airlines.The ministry said the ban from Iranian airspace was to last for three hours, 4:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on Thursday. Iran’s warning also covered three hours earlier on Wednesday, the ministry...

White House officials believe that intensive diplomatic efforts to temper Iran’s retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week may be having an effect, the Washington Post said on Tuesday, while also reporting that the Biden administration was enraged by the timing of the assassination. The Middle East has been bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following Haniyeh’s death, along with the killing of top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier. While Israel has not commented publicly on Haniyeh’s death, Tehran...

Israel will soon be met with "a strong and definite response" to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Chief Commander of the Iranian Army Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, according to Iranian news sites. According to IFP News, Mousavi was speaking at a ceremony commemorating Journalist's Day in Bandar Abbas, a port city in Southern Iran. “The Zionist regime will soon receive a strong and definite response, and there is no doubt about it," Mousavi reportedly said, according to IRNA and Tasnim. "It is clear that they themselves have realized the speed of their own destruction, and...

The White House said Wednesday it is as “as close” as it has ever been to reaching a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. “There is a good proposal before both sides, and they need to both accept that proposal so we can get this in place,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “We are as close as we think we have ever been.” Kirby added that gaps have narrowed in the negotiations and the U.S. believes a deal can be reached, though he did not offer a timeline. The gaps are related to...

As Ukrainian forces move closer to the Kursk NPP Moscow is finally taking steps to protect it and its all-women guard force, but will it be too little, too late. The independent news site “Important Stories,” citing employees from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, says that the facility has been put at risk by negligence and hubris. As the Ukrainian Armed Forces move further into the Kursk region and are now less than 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the plant, Moscow is apparently moving Pantsir self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air defense systems into the area. According to an anonymous source from within...

An Israeli delegation has been banned from a youth ultimate frisbee competition in Belgium after they were targeted by anti-Israel protests and vandalism. According to the ultimate frisbee site Ultiworld, the Israeli delegation to the U-17 European Youth Ultimate Championships in Ghent, Belgium, consisted of two teams, competing in the open and mixed divisions. From the get-go, the organizers of the competition were met with heavy pressure due to the Israeli participation. Shortly before the competition was set to begin, the Ghent city council and police decided to ban the Israeli teams from playing in the city due to a...

Middle East update on the Third World War, currently in progress ... three upstart powers — Communist China, Nationalist Russia, and Radical Islam* — who mean to reshape the global order to suit their interests and aren't shy about using any means at their disposal (including violence) to achieve that end. ... The members of this new Axis also make fantastic allies of convenience, if not ideology. A bit like Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia allying for the brief and brutal business of carving up Poland ... China wants the western Pacific (that's everything on the other side of Hawaii)...

The NHS is to launch its first ever service for trans patients wanting to return to the gender in which they were born. It comes in the wake of the Cass Review, an independent report into transgender services, which found children were being hurried down “affirmative” pathways involving powerful drugs and medical interventions. The report made a series of recommendations to the NHS, including to provide care for trans patients who had changed their mind after transitioning, and warned health leaders not to use the same medics who were previously involved in their care.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday it was fighting intense battles against Ukrainian forces that had penetrated its southern border near a major natural gas transmission hub in one of the largest incursions into Russian territory since the war began.Russia has advanced this year after the failure of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive to achieve any major gains, and has taken 420 sq km (162 sq miles) of territory from Ukrainian forces since June 14, Russian officials say.Ukraine struck back on Tuesday, and battles continued through the night into Wednesday as Ukrainian forces pushed to the northwest of the border town of...

A week after the killing of a top Hamas leader in Tehran and a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Lebanon, the Middle East is on edge. Fears of a broader regional war have been mounting amid vows of revenge from Iranian leaders that have left Israel in a state of deep uncertainty. Why is an Iranian attack expected? Iran has vowed to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader who was killed in Tehran after he and other leaders of Iranian-backed militant groups attended the inauguration of the new Iranian president. Israeli leaders would not confirm or...

During an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded to a question on the immigration positions of 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz by saying he’ll “take on these criticisms, but do it always with facts and with a smile on his face.” Later, she added that “I wish we had the days where people would welcome people to the ticket for at least one day.” After Klobuchar defended Walz’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and riots in the state, stating that he opposed defunding the police and increased funding for police, and...

The real cause of the unrest is mass immigration imposed on Britain against the wishes of the native population.The rioting breaking out all across Britain right now is what happens when a country’s political class tries to depoliticize mass immigration — smearing anyone who objects to it as “far-right” — and then impose a policy of mass immigration by force. At some point, the people revolt.Britain’s liberal elites have latched onto “online misinformation” and racism as an explanation for the riots, but the real explanation is that Britain’s leaders have sold their countrymen out for decades, importing an unassimilated foreign...

According to the data, five percent of the global Syrian population now live in Germany alone, accounting for a “16-fold” increase in just a decade, which works out to be a staggering 1,520% jump in the numbers; here’s the story from a new report by the editorial staff at Remix News:Ever since the 2015/16 migrant crisis, Syrians have arrived in Germany in ever-increasing numbers, and now number at least 972,000 at the end of 2023, according to Statista. There are 22 million Syrians living in Syria itself, meaning those in Germany represent nearly 1 for every 20 in their native...

Kamala Harris's vice-presidential pick Tim Walz has drawn attention halfway across the world in China. Chinese social media users have been discussing how Mr Walz spent a year teaching in the south-eastern province of Guangdong in 1989 - a topic that was trending on Weibo with 12 million views. He and his wife, fellow teacher Gwen Whipple, later honeymooned in the country. Mr Walz once described his decision to teach in China as "one of the best things I've ever done". He was fresh out of college when he moved to China to teach English and American history at a...

Russia said Wednesday it was battling an unprecedented cross-border incursion from Ukrainian troops backed by armored vehicles and aerial support, with Moscow scrambling to reinforce the area after what President Vladimir Putin called a “major provocation.” The attack has not been acknowledged by Ukraine but would mark a dramatic shift in strategy as its forces struggle to hold onto key territory on the front lines in the country’s east.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese American scholar was convicted Tuesday of U.S. charges of using his reputation as a pro-democracy activist to gather information on dissidents and feed it to his homeland’s government... Prosecutors said that at the behest of China’s main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, Wang lived a double life for over a decade. He held himself out as a critic of the Chinese government so that he could build rapport with people who actually opposed it, then betrayed their trust by telling Beijing what they said and planned, prosecutors said.... Instead of sending the...

Dem veep pick Tim Walz has fawned over his time living in China, saying he will “never” be treated as well as when he was in the Communist country and hailing the repressive regime’s lack of crime. The Minnesota governor spent 1989 to 1990 teaching school in China as a part of the WorldTeach program based out of Harvard University — one of the first Americans accepted into the program, according to the Star-Herald... “They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience,” Walz said,... Walz and his wife, Gwen Whipple, went on to...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a cheerleader for mass migration and for illegal migrants, just like his partner at the top of the 2024 ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. “This nation owes [migrants] a debt of gratitude,” Walz said in a 2021 letter to the Democratic Leaders of the House and Senate. “Provide a clean pathway to citizenship for … Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and their families,” he wrote.